Data for: Temporal Pass Plots: an intuitive method for visualising activity patterns of bats and other vocalising animals

Temporal activity patterns can potentially reveal useful information about behaviour, phenological changes and emergence times for bat species; however, detailed assessments of temporal activity are infrequently performed or published for bats. Passive electronic devices, such as autonomous recording units and camera traps, are increasingly being used as a means of monitoring various species, communities and habitats. Data recorded by these devices inherently contain file metadata detailing the dates and times when data capture took place. We have utilised this metadata to create the Temporal Pass Plot (TPP), which provides intuitive, yet highly detailed, visualisations of temporal bat activity over prolonged periods of time. Furthermore, TPPs are produced using a common scale based upon activity within predetermined time-blocks, enabling direct comparisons between different sites and species to be performed. TPPs reveal inter- and intra-specific differences, and seasonal changes, in temporal activity. As a relatively untapped area of research, further study is required to evaluate associations between activity patterns and different behaviours (e.g. roosting, commuting and swarming). However, if this can be achieved, the scope of assessments that could be performed with passive monitoring technologies could be significantly expanded, enabling more detailed evaluations of habitat use to be performed with minimal disturbance to the target species. Although the TPP was principally designed for the purpose of studying bat activity, it can easily be adapted for other species that can are monitored using autonomous recording devices. Article data: This folder contains the data files used to create all three Temporal Pass Plots shown in the main article. Vignette data: This folder contains all files described in the TPP vignette, which is provided in the supplementary materials of the main article